Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a rotor spinning apparatus having a support frame disposed in a stationary fashion on a frame of a spinning machine, the support frame has a bearing with a spinning rotor and a rotor housing, and a pivotably supported lid element covers the rotor housing and has a sliver feed roller, an opening roller, a fiber guide channel plunging into the rotor opening, and a yarn draw-off opening.
Rotor spinning apparatuses of the generic type described above are known, for instance, from German Published, Non-Prosecuted Application DE 36 36 182 A1. That reference describes a spinning box with a rotor housing to which suction is applied, which is secured to the machine frame, and in which a spinning rotor revolves while being supported on support disks. The rotor housing is closed off at the front in air-tight fashion by a channel plate, which is disposed on a lid element and has an attachment engaging the rotor.
In addition to a sliver feed roller with a relatively long drive flange and a worm wheel disposed on the end, the pivotably supported lid element has an opening roller driven by a tangential belt through a drive wharve, and a one-piece fiber guide channel extending between the opening roller and the spinning rotor. The pivot axis of the lid element is located in a rear region of the spinning box, preferably above the drive shaft of the sliver feed roller. In order to carry out maintenance work, for instance, the spinning box can be opened. In that case, the lid element is unlocked and folded upward about the pivot axis. When the lid element is pivoted, both the drive wharve of the opening roller and the worm wheel disposed on the end of the sliver feed roller come out of engagement with the associated drive means. In other words, they lose contact with a revolving tangential belt or worm that is disposed on a drive shaft extending longitudinally of the machine. The sliver opening device therefore comes to a stop. At the same time, braking of the spinning rotor is initiated through a lever linkage.
A disadvantage of such spinning boxes is above all the installed position of the pivot axis. Since it is located relatively far behind the rotor, that leads to unfavorable geometrical conditions and thus to certain problems upon pivoting of the channel plate extension into the rotor opening, wherein the channel plate extension has the fiber guide channel mouth.
In such known configurations difficulties also arise if a dirt separator is to be installed.
European Patent No. 0 197 442 B1 describes various models of pivotable spinning boxes. Spinning boxes are shown that have a one-piece basic housing, which accommodates all of the spinning components, which can be pivoted as a unit and which can be closed by a simple covering, as well as spinning devices made up of two main structural units. A first main structural unit is formed by a support frame that not only has a support disk bearing for the rotor shaft but also has the rotor housing which is open at the front. That structural unit is pivotably supported about a horizontal axis of rotation located above the rotor housing. A second main structural unit includes a lid element that closes the rotor housing. Besides the sliver feed roller, that lid element has an opening roller and a one-piece fiber guide channel. The pivot axis of the lid element is formed by a drive shaft for sliver feeding that extends longitudinally of the machine. Since in such spinning boxes the pivot axis of the lid element is also located far behind the rotor mouth, the aforementioned problems arise in that case as well.